The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the director of each defense laboratory establishes, in association with one or more public or private colleges or universities in the United States or one or more consortia of colleges or universities in the United States, cooperative work-education programs for undergraduate and graduate students.

Under a cooperative work-education program established under subsection (a), a director referred to in that subsection may, without regard to any applicable non-statutory limitation on the number of authorized personnel or on the aggregate amount of any personnel cost—

(1) make an offer for participation in the cooperative work-education program directly to a student and appoint such student to an entry-level position of employment in the laboratory of such director;

(2) pay such person a rate of basic pay, not to exceed the maximum rate of pay provided for grade GS–9 under the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, that is competitive with compensation levels provided for entry-level positions in similar industry-sponsored cooperative work-education programs;

(3) pay all travel expenses between the college or university in which the student is enrolled and the laboratory concerned for not more than six round trips per year; and

(4) pay all or part of such fees, charges, and costs related to the participation of such student in the cooperative work-education program as tuition, matriculation fees, charges for library and laboratory services, materials, and supplies, and the purchase or rental price of books.

A director of a defense laboratory may—

(1) require a student, as a condition for receiving payments referred to in subsection (b)(4), to enter into a written agreement to continue employment in such defense laboratory for a period of service specified in the agreement; or

(2) make such payments without requiring such an agreement.

In this subsection, the term “qualifying employee” means a student who is employed at the National Security Agency under—

(1) The Director of the National Security Agency may provide a qualifying employee of a defense laboratory of that Agency with living quarters at no charge, or at a rate or charge prescribed by the Director by regulation, without regard to section 5911(c) of title 5.

In this subsection, the term “qualifying employee” means a student who is employed at the National Security Agency under—

(A) a Student Educational Employment Program of the Agency conducted under this section or any other provision of law; or

(B) a similar cooperative or summer education program of the Agency that meets the criteria for Federal cooperative or summer education programs prescribed by the Office of Personnel Management.

(Added Pub. L. 101–510, div. A, title II, § 247(a)(1), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1522; amended Pub. L. 108–136, div. A, title IX, § 926, Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1579.)